Plot Twist

14. short and neat

If the chances of me winning the lottery were as high as the chances of me losing my designated babysitter on the night I really needed one, I would be rich by now.

My brother, Lucas, had called and he and his wife, Nicole, and their kids fell ill. Their guess was it was some bug the kids must have caught at their school, and judging by the backdrop sounds of Nicole retching and the kids coughing like cats that had a furball stuck in their throat, I could agree. That meant that I had no one to watch Lexi and babysit while I went out on what would be my first night out in a very long time, which (and this goes without saying), I was really looking forward to.

When I called the birthday girl and told her that I would most likely not be able to come tonight, I knew I would be letting Olivia down, especially because her birthday celebration was going to be just us two. If I didn't show up, she'd have no one to go out and celebrate her birthday with.

However, what I did not predict was for her to come up with a solution so crazy, I swear my eyes jumped out of its sockets.

And she went ahead and suggested it nonchalantly. "Just call Sebástien and ask him to watch Lexi for a few hours."

"Are you out of your crazy mind?!" I asked, sounding as outraged at her suggestion as if she had just told me that pigs were flying.

"What would be the problem?"

"Besides leaving my child with a stranger?"

My obvious tone didn't go by unnoticed, and Olivia made no efforts to contain her snort, before retorting,"Please, Mel. Sébastien is way past the phase of being a stranger."

"Okay." I took a breath. "But that doesn't mean that I should ask him to babysit."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to!"

"Or..." She dragged the two letter word. "Is it because you're afraid that asking him for a favour might bring you two even closer and then you'll have to date him and kiss him and marry him and have his kids?"

"Oh my God, Olivia." On the other end of the line, I could hear Olivia laughing as if teasing me about Sébastien was as funny as a late 90s rom-com scene. She knew me well enough to know which buttons to press to get a reaction out of me. And today, she got the reaction she was expecting. "I am begging you to please shut up about it now."

"I was joking." A beat. "Kind of." She added the last two words in a low voice tone, before going back to her normal one as she spoke again, not giving me time to protest. "Seriously Mel, just ask him. He won't mind. And it's not like we're gonna be out all night, it's just dinner and a few celebratory drinks."

Olivia dia have a point. But I didn't want to settle for that decision just yet.

Sensing my hesitation, she kept making her convincing case. "Plus, Lexi is such an easy kid, he won't have to lift a finger. It's literally just watching her until she falls asleep and then waiting for you to get home and that's it."

If Olivia was a superhero, her power would be to make everything sound so easy.

"Liv... Seb and I are just not," I had to take a long pause to try and figure out what was the end of that sentence, but I didn't come up with anything too great. "In that place. We talk and discuss food and all that, but he's not the type of person I would just call and ask if he'd mind watching Lexi."

"It's not like he was your first choice, but you're out of resources here!" I exhaled loudly, knowing all too well that she was right. "And I really, really don't want to cancel tonight."